Adorably Precocious Child/Playing With

Basic Trope: A cute kid character who tends to act like an adult.

• Straight: Michael, a 10-year-old boy, feels that he has adult responsibilities to uphold. He occasionally lapses into childish behavior, though.
• Exaggerated: Michael is a toddler that feels the need to be the head of his household. His behavior relapses to that of an infant.
• Justified: Michael is faced with a situation such as Parental Abandonment that would require him to behave more like an adult.
• Inverted:
  • Michael is an adult that tries to embrace his youth, but his adult tendencies get in the way.
  • Michelle is a young girl that feels the need to act more mature.
• Subverted:
  • Michael never seems to lapse into childish behavior, making him wise beyond his years instead of this trope.
  • Michael is a Cute Shotaro Boy... at first glance. He's actually 21 years old.
• Double Subverted: Michael never seems to lapse into childish behavior... until you take him to a toy store.
• Parodied:
  • Michael and Michelle have a schedule plan so they don't end up being childish at the same time.
  • Michael wears a suit and behaves like a stereotypical adult. Anyone who mentions his age is met with a childish outburst.
• Deconstructed:
  • Michael falls to depression because absolutely no one will take him seriously, even when it's crucial. He begins to hate himself for his childish tendencies.
  • Alternatively, Michael remains baby-faced despite going through, if not having gone through puberty believing he has come of age. He ends up becoming jaded, cynical and nostalgic because of this.
• Reconstructed:
  • His parents begin to listen to him more and treat him more like an adult after seeing how horribly he's been torn apart.
  • Michael finally manages to achieve something great that earns him the respect he always wanted.
• Zig Zagged: ???
• Averted: Michael does not try to act older than he actually is.
• Enforced: ???
• Lampshaded: "For such a little kid, he sure does act grown-up..."
• Invoked: Michael deliberately tries to act more like an adult in order to get people to gush over how cute he is.
• Defied: Michael hates the idea of growing up, so he refuses to act like one.
• Discussed: ???
• Conversed: ???

---

Back to Adorably Precocious Child.